The present invention relates to the cleaning of shaker screens often used in petroleum extraction and mining operations, particularly to a device for the automatic cleaning of said shaker screens that allows the screens to be cleaned more efficiently and safely than with current “manual” cleaning methods.
Large screens known in the petroleum and mining businesses as shaker screens are used to filter out rocks and debris that accumulate during drilling or mining. In order for the screens to keep filtering properly, the screens must be cleaned to remove the accumulated debris. That cleaning is usually done manually, in present petroleum and mining operations, by personnel who manually use high-pressure hoses to wash the debris off of the screens. Alternatively, the shaker screens can be removed from the drilling or mining apparatus and cleaned in a separate device that is essentially a large dishwasher. The present invention is an improvement over both manual cleaning and the “dishwasher” type of screen cleaners, in that it enables automatic cleaning of the shaker screens, while active drilling or mining operations are going on, and that is both safer and more efficient. Further improvements of the present invention over manual cleaning are that it uses less fluid pressure on the screens, resulting in less damage to the shaker screens, that the present invention's downward spray system reduces the spray of potentially hazardous cleaning fluids, and does not require a worker to leave his or her current job task in order to clean the screens.